Devil Winds and a hedonistic Middle Eastern souk

So this week was the week that Tenerife burned, or at least it felt like it. Devil winds blowing in from the Sahara have almost reduced living in the Golf Del Sur into one constant dash from shade, to fan, to air conditioning and back. Hitting us in the latter part of this week, the rumours, of course so often false, were true. I should have guessed by the grim demeanour and resigned tone of my local bar proprietor.  The only certainty seems to be that it could be worse, coming from another ‘local’ sipping on a mango smoothie this really does not hold much comfort for an active Divemaster intern.

However I digress from the weekly update. This is actually an important time as I approach my halfway point. Four of the more experienced interns are leaving in the next few days and I shall be sad to see them leave. Their support and help in the past four weeks have been completely invaluable. So to Malena, Theiss, Mel and Gerardo… Adieu and safe journey home!

Again this feels like a digression, so onto life as an intern. This week has really enforced a key message from the Rescue Diver Course, to STOP->THINK->ACT. Essentially during a dive and in the preparation I made a mistake that was really silly, that of going for a moderately deep dive with a half full cylinder. Due to this there were a couple of other effects that meant a fellow intern had to stop a dive early and ascend with me. Even now, some days hence, a consistent mental face palm has been in effect.

The annoying thing is that this has overshadowed, at least to an extent, some really positive leaps forward. I gave my first dive briefing (to a customer, Jens, no less), not perfect but still a ‘first’. My pool skills have been improving, surprising myself at how they seem to be coming together. Two other aspects, the Pre-Dive Safety Check and Discover Scuba Diving Kit Assembly, are also coming on well despite my attempts at improvisation. Which occur despite it being specified on a card.

Now…. To the diving. The main highlight this week was a pair of dives at one of our less frequented dive sites, Las Eras. This dive, including a long time customer Marvin, alongside a sheer wall through Tenerife’s underwater volcanic landscape was excellent. Streaked Gurnards, Groupers, Triggerfish, Barracuda, Octopus…. I hope, Dear Reader, you get the point. Part of it was also a drift dive, but mainly it just seemed a different kind of diving compared to what I have experienced so far in Tenerife.

I was also able to observe the Confined elements of the PADI Rescue Diver course for two of our interns. I desperately wanted to be playing the part of an unresponsive diver underwater, as this is Hide-and-Seek with diving equipment. Indeed, it sounds very amusing.

On a final note, a personal observation: On Saturday evening, to celebrate the ‘graduation’ of our interns, Dive and Sea hit Playa Las Americas for hijinks and frivolities. Now for those who do not know, like myself prior to Saturday, this is a fascinating cultural experience. Even now I still have no idea how to describe it accurately, apart from (this being the closest approximation I can manage) a hedonistic Middle Eastern souk with an impressive amount of novelty sunglasses.

Sad Goodbye's and Happy Hello's.......

Yep, I survived next week :D some people left us but someone just started his internship.
That was a week with one new person - Graham started his internship on Monday.
We called him a Tin Man ;) we started this week without Mel and Gerardo – oh, I miss that guy - very helpful and friendly person. Actually he was the first one who could understood my language :p during the week Melana and Theiss left us also.

To sum up it was good week for me I made some new dives at different areas  all of the dives were from the boat. I don’t have a problem with roll back entry anymore. Also my seasickness disappeared !!

On Monday we were at Yellow Mountain. My buddy was Dori. The dive leader was Pete. We had a chance to do some mapping and on the second dive we killed some black long-spined sea-urchin. That was fun and I used knife for the first time. This day I tried to dive with 7 kilos and was practising my air consumption.

In the afternoon Pete took us for the third dive. I was excited because all day went were smooth. My buddy was CK she is also like me a baby diver. She was after her night dive so she was a bit tired. She wasn’t able to do roll back entry in to the water. She panicked and Alistar (boat cover) decided that we are not diving. I missed my dive but I still did two dives

We spend most of the day in the marina. Me and CK were cleaning the anchor and a boat together with Sam and Alistar. Back in the shop I pass my Rescue Diver exam. It was quite hard one for me but I scored it with 98%  :D.

Two awesome dives at Poco Naufragio and El delfine. At Poco Naufragio my buddy was Alistar. The dive leader was Alice. I saw three stingrays. Two of them were huge and one of it was near me and in front of my face. What a great feeling and possibility to see them. Stingrays are really friendly but if you are on top of them they can sting you. During that dive I saw also two moray eels black and fangtooth one.
The second dive was at El delfin. It was a deep dive. We were at 26 metres for 28 minutes. I was there for the first time. We did not descent by using the anchor rope. New experience for me as well. I saw some fireworms. Actually Alistar drove a picture for me. Now I know how the fireworms look like ;)

I had a day off. I was sleeping till 10am :D made some shopping and cleaning the apartment. On Friday I was expecting the guest (Marta – my best friend from Poland). I went for a lovely dinner to Los Abrigos. I eaten the best and the biggest fish ever  I cannot remember the name because it was in Spanish unfortunately.
In  the evening we went for a dinner to some Mexican restaurant to say good bye to Melana and Theiss. It was good night but sad one. I will miss those people. Great couple. Melana was my little hero. She started as a baby diver and at the end of her internship she was one of the best. She was a queen of kit set up :D

Day of skills.
That day we were in the swimming pool all day long. We practised underwater skills. I cleared and remove my mask once again. What is more I had also swum without mask and with open eyes for 15 metres. That was awesome. I am awesome to be honest ;) and I am really proud of myself. After few times it is not as that scary at it was at the beginning. Practise makes you better!!
My hover is a disaster. That is one of the skills that need to be practise.
In the evening Marta came. It was really nice to see my friend and speak Polish :D

Two more dives at Yellow Mountain but this time with Melissa as a leader. We had a lovely young girl with us Jenny. She was practising her Open Water course. She has done well. She had some problems with pivot because of the strong currents but rest of the skills she done good.
During the second dive I consumed only 60 bars of air in 24 minutes. That is a good result. I noticed that when I am much more relaxed underwater I consumed less air. I found my recipe! Now I need to practise how to be chill underwater :D

The last week of our Dive and Sea Tenerife internship

On Monday, Malene went to the pool with Melissa to help out with Allan, a new Open Water student. 
In the afternoon, we had a new intern arriving, Graham, and Malene showed him around the place. Meanwhile, Theiss was on boat cover for Village, Oz, Dory and Bruce, who were doing their mapping dive with Pete. 
It all went fine, and upon complaining wittingly about not being in the water, Pete made sure that Theiss actually did get a "dive", though very sudden, brief and with no equipment whatsoever.. :)

On Tuesday, we were acting as substitute DMs / DSD Leaders for another dive center, Tenerife Dive. They had called upon us to help them out with a couple of DSD students, which we happily signed up for. When we arrived, we bascially just made sure to stay out of the way for the morning divers, and then when it all had settled we could swoop in and get the DSD students started on their paperwork and the video. After that was sorted we got into the pool, and we had the easiest time ever. The two DSDs were a couple of young and tough military girls that picked up the skill very quickly. We did a couple of swims and the skill set three times, just to get them familiarized with the equipment.

Then we had a long lunch break, and in the afternook we went to the backside of Yellow Mountain with the DSDs and Alice's group of Open Water students assisted by Chris, a Tenerife Dive intern.

Obviously, we've never been there before, but it was a very easy site to navigate: you had the rocky coast, which continued out on the ocean floor, until turning into a sand bottom. There was a lot of cool stuff to see, including a beautiful common octopus, and it is the ideal training site because it is the protected by the cliffs that on the west side create the small Yellow Mountain bay. The DSDs were absolutely a pleasure to work with (due of course to excellent training in the pool), so we enjoyed out selves.

When we got back to the dive center, we cleaned kit and got a ride back to Terrazas de la Paz. We really had a nice day, and it was definately good experience for two new DMs/DSD Leaders to get out and get some real hands-on experience, and also to see how another dive center is being run.

On Wednesday we had Theiss' cousin, Niklas, in the pool to do a scuba tune-up and his girlfriend, Line, to do her Discover Scuba Diving. Malene was conducting the DSD; Theiss handled his cousin's tune-up, which was obviously a lot of fun. Theiss and Niklas went through the skill set very quickly because the latter didn't have any problems whatsoever with any of them. In the shallower end of the pool, Line and Malene, assisted by Nemo and supervise by Melissa, also had fun and Line did a great job despite her nervousity prior to the experience.

Afterwards, the six of us together with Susanne, CK, Jamie, Frankie and Allan went off to El Puertito (aka. Puer-turtle-o). Once we got into the water, Allan did some of his skills for his O.W. course and afterwards we went off to find the turtles. Some of us did see one (they are so cool!!), with the other being to focused on different matters.

On the second dive Allan had to do a few more skills before we could head off to find some more turtle-action. And this time, we hit the jackpot. A big individual crossed our paths, and it was very interested in us. We probably spend about 12-15 minutes of the dive watching the playful turtle - so amazing and the day was saved!

And that was our last day and dive with Dive and Sea Tenerife.
In a short summary, we've met and connected with a lot of interesting people and we've experienced and learned so much, both in and around the actual center as well as submerged in the Tenerifean waves. Some days have been bad, some days have been amazing, and that is just how it is. It's been hard work, a big challenge, but we definately feel it has payed off tenfold in the end!

So now there's not much left to say other than we wish all the best in the future to the dive center with the friendly customers, Will and Alice, for providing the guidance needed during our internship, the lovely and (most of the time) hard working interns, without whom the experience would never have been the same and finally, Pete and Melissa for giving us the opportunity in the first place.

As they say in Danish speaking locations: God vind fremover til jer alle!

Round Stingrays made my week!!

Diving at Abades. I love that place but the trip to the shore with fully equipment kit and 15l-tank and weight belt (10kilos) can be tiring. Susanne and me were on 15l cylinder. The reason for that were two dives without swapping the tanks.  Marloes was practising here Open Water skills with Melissa. I and CK stayed close to them and observed the training dive.

Skills skills skills days!

Started at 1030 Tuesday. It was nice  together with Susanne we went to marina to help wash kits. After that CK, Tin Man and me went to swimming pool to practise our skills. Our skills are improving all the time. I do not scare any more of removing the mask or clear it. Hoover is getting better and my fin pivot is brilliant :D

CK and me had two swimming pool session and had a chance to develop our skills as well.

Then I had lovely day off. Volcano trip together with Susanne and Marloes.!!

Skills skills skills again!

CK,Tin Man and me went to swimming pool to practise our skills. I did my skills with Melissa. It was really cool because I had a chance to do them in front of the instructor. I was stressed but Melissa was there to point me my mistakes and do the skills again so that was a good lesson for me.

After the session we sat in the shop and written down surface skills. The only thing I need to practise now is to how to say everything in English properly !

The day with a Round Stingray!

What a day! Two awesome dives at new dive sites together with a lovely couple Richard and Maggie.

For the first dive we went to place called STEPS. Melissa was a boat cover and Pete was leading a dive. We did not drop the anchor. The dive was nice. Maggie and Richard are well-experienced diver. Maggie showed me huge fire worm – it was cool. Some arrow crabs and starfishes which I like a lot.
At the end of the dive we were supposed to use our SMBs that Melissa could locate us. My unfortunately did not work properly. I was so pissed of because of not using it. I really wanted to try…

So here we go :D The second dive: Dive site called Estorne.  I was buddy with Bruce. At the beginning of the Bruce pointed cuttlefish and I saw hermit crab !!
After few minutes Pete started to point sth. Bruce and I did not actually realised what is going on and suddenly this huge round stingray just swam to us. I was saw scared. She was in front of me and was getting to be closer.  It was awesome. I am really happy that I could attend that.

Two good dives at Yellow Mountain. For the first time I had a chance to be on a dive where the leaders are interns, Sam and Bruce passed their Divemaster exams and were able to do that. I was a buddy with Tin Man and we had a one customer Amir who is a Rescue Diver on the boat.  CK and Amir were sick on the boat ;)

On that dive Tin Man pointed on island grouper and we did swim through as well. I saw also small black moray ell. My air consumption is getting improve 

Back at an Old time favorite: las Eras

Sunday evening, 19:44 @ the Aberdeen. Thats where i am writing my second blog. I just gave DVD-guy a lovely smile and am in full concentration mode right now. Today the dive shop was closed so everyone got their well- needed day off! So far ive been awake between 10 and 13 and spend the rest of the day in a semi-comatized state, not able to eat, drink or even keep my eyes open!
Guess i was in definite need of a day off... the strange weather and hot wind of the last days definatly didnt make our job easy!

Highlight of this second week definitly was going back to my favourite dive site here in Tenerife: las Eras! Last year i had my best deep dive ever there, which got me very excited going back. However when we arrived there, we realised a not to be named Mexican / US intern bundled the wrong wet suit for Frankie, the big boss` daughter so me and frankie were forced to skip the first dive and go back on a girls-only-road trip to the shop in search for a wet suit that actually "fits a well developed 14yo girl with boobs" (quoting frankz on that!!).

Of course, as always in these kind of situations, the dive we missed out on, turned out to be the dive of the Century! Im pretty sure the other interns will tell all about it in their blogs.

The second dive however was great fun aswell, like last year there was an extremely strong current swimming back. Luckily ive been attempting the gym he re in Tenerife with melissa and i was able to keep up with her! Im a big fan of challenging conditions that push you just that little bit more, that make you focus more and force you to think, act and controll your breathing, your swimming and your overall ascend. These are in my opinion the situations that you learn from and make you a more experienced PADI Divemaster!

Last week i also had a couple of good pool sessions. My skills are getting there and also my kit assembly and pre-dive safety check are nearly perfect. Practice is paying off!

20:26 right now and time to go home. Within 8 hours i have to be in the shop again ready for the night dive! You will hear all about it next week!

Regards
Susanne

No. 11

So, here i am, intern number 11 (or according to our lovely CK on certain nights out: "the old woman" ), back at Dive and Sea Tenerife after 11 months to do the second part of my Divemaster internship.
My first week back has been a week of very low lows and not very high highs.

For me, the week started of with assisting Will on an open water course for 2 Belgium boys. To summarize: its awesome to work with teenagers who actually not try to stab you with home-made-knifes out of toothbrushes or throw deskchairs at you ( for all you people who didnt bother reading my awesome and well-thought-about blogs last year --> at home i work in juvenile prison!!). Thijs and Tuur did really well during their pool session and open water dives. The conditions were rough, big surge and bad vis. But they managed to complete their open water certificates without throwing up or getting seasick on the boat. So much can be said about me; First day back in the marina and on the boat was the worst day of the year so far... I got seasick, thought i was gonna die and got offered tons of drugs, aka seasickness medication, by dodgy-rich-boat-owners-in-speedos...I stayed out on the second dive, lost my rashvest in the marina, dropped dory's pants in the marina, dropped will's mask in the marina, peed over my own towel while peeing behind a rock because i couldnt run of to the toilets and leave the kid behind....got bruised all over and finally shared my emotions during debrief with my 'new best friends for the next 5 weeks' with a good cry!!

So... After my second day in, I needed a positive experience and had a go at the PADI Divemaster exam; passed it with nice percentages and got my groove back!

The rest of the week went pretty ok. A couple of shore dives at Abades and an awesome deep dive at poco naufragio; Malene and I buddied up for the deep dive and after we passed the little tugboat and got down to 25m. For a navigation skill. Malene took the baring, i counted the fin pivots and after 20 pivots we were about to take our reciprocal bearing (look at me using fancy language that i absolutely didnt had to look up in the dm manual :-)) and swim back when we saw this strange fish circling around us. We were about to turn around and spotted a massive common ray with that same strange fish lifting on his back. Turns out that 'strange' fish is called a life sharksucker or remora in Spanish, it sucks on to other species to catch a ride. During our safety stop it even tried to catch a ride on one of our interns private parts, funny as!!

I' ve also been in the pool quiet a few times this week to get my skills back at the level where they were last year. I got pretty frustrated with myself a couple of times, knowing how everything is supposed to go, but not being fysically able to actually live up to my own expectatoins...sucks, but still 4 weeks to go, ill get there and be my awesome little selve in no time!

Thats it, be back next week!

Susanne

The 7th week of our internship in a brief recap.

With all of our skills and stamina tests finalized, it was now only some minor formalities that was left in our PADI Divemaster course. 

One of those was to observe an Open Water Diver course in open water, and we were so lucky that Steve joined us to do his. 

So we went to Arrecife with Will, Cassandra and Trigger to get that sorted out. Unfortunately, conditions were not ideal with bad visibility and swell causing the most troubles. 

One really nice thing about the dives was to see Steve's reaction when he spotted his first-ever  Atlantic damselfish. It absolutely blew his mind, and his enthusiasm was very refreshing as well as a reminder to oneself of how it was to get the first couple of dives in open water under the belt.

The following day Theiss went out to have arguably the best dive of his stay here in Tenerife.
He went to Las Eras for the first time together with Melissa, Marvin, Nemo, Bruce, Village, Susanne and Frankie, and they basically saw everything you can ask for and more in near perfect conditions with a visibility that was very close to being 30 m.

First and foremost, the group saw a common octopus hiding under a rock, and from there it just got better and better, with the sight of hermit crabs, a glasseye, a school of barracudas, a common eagle ray, a decent sized round stingray, a black moray eel and a couple of beautiful streaked gurnards.

Meanwhile, Malene was at Yellow Mountain to do her Navigation exercise and her Search and Recovery: again only small details that had to be sorted out before we could get signed off.

In the afternoon, we had Ulrich, Elin and Joost in the pool for their DSD programme, 

They did really well all of them, and were very eager to go in to open water.

And that happened the next day. The five of us went to Abades together with Melissa, Will, Trigger and Susanne. The visibility and swell near the shore was bad, but once we hit the reef, it turned out to be a couple of nice dives, where we saw a barracuda and a black moray.

On Thursday all of us (even Pete!) went in the pool in the morning to do a so called DSD workshop, where the instructors acted as simulated students to get us prepared to handle the most common mistakes we can encounter when conducting a DSD programme. It was a lot of fun and everybody had a laugh, which is always a good thing to enhance the team spirit. On a more serious note, we all learned something and we're definately better equipped now to conduct a successful programme.

On Friday we went to the marina, and the objective was to get some of the stamina tests out of the way for the new interns. Malene was observing Pearl's and Oz' Rescue Course (the confined part) together with Nemo.
Theiss was cleaning kit and because we didn't have any time schedule, as we normal have when washing kit, we could do it more thoroughly than usual. Also, the boat and the cars got washed.

Saturday was a sad day, because it was the very last day for Cassandra and Trigger.
We went to Poco Naufragio to do Richard's and Steve's deep speciality. On the first dive we, together with Cassandra, observed Richard doing his exercises on 27 metres of water conducted by Will, which went without a hitch. On the way down we were met by a couple of curious common stingrays. The little wreck was teeming with life, and once we got back onto the shelf we saw a black moray eel, so it was an excellent dive all in all. But, then, on the second dive it really picked up.

I led Nemo and his dad, Gary, on a jolly, a once we got down we saw three massive rays (two round stingrays; one roughtailed) circling the site casually. One of them even had a live sharksucker attached to itself, and since they a pretty rare, our theory is that it must have been the same individual we've seen a couple times there now.
That was simply breathtaking, and the magnificent animals kept appearing on the dive as we went on.

Come Saturday night we all went out in Las Américas, which was obviously a lot of fun and a great way to greet Cassandra and Trigger a proper farewell.

On Monday, Malene went to the pool with Melissa to help out with Allan, a new Open Water student.
In the afternoon, we had a new intern arriving, Graham, and Malene showed him around the place. 

End of the this road, but it branches off into millions more..

My internship has come to a close.

The two months ran through my fingers like water, and I am left here just trying to remember all the amazing
experiences, people, animals that I had the good fortune of encountering.

Two months may sound like a long time, but in reality Ive come to realize that two months barely scratch the surface on this incredible floating rock.
The people I met who I would of never met in a million years are some of the best people i have ever come to know, and i feel like i got to know them really well after spending two months with them. Every day, 10 hours, for 2 months is a long time.

People you laughed with, people who shared in the good times, and bad times, people who were in the same boat as you. Maybe not from the same walks of life, but people who were your comrades through
the thick and thin. I will never forget everybody from the dive shop, and they have left an everlasting impression on me.

Never in a million years would I ever of met these people had I not been on this internship.
Never in a million years would I of thought I would see the things I have seen in these brief two months.

As a kid I remember being engrossed with marine life, watching nature documentaries, imagining one day seeing the images on TV in person.
Seeing octopus change colors before my very eyes, witnessing shoals of fish swim by, paying to mind the diver beside them.
NEVER did i for a second think it would become a reality. From growing up in the desert never did i believe the winds of life would steer me to my true passion. It was unheard of growing up for a desert rat to leave the great dry bareness for sparkling seas of abundance and beauty.

Well Ive truly been fortunate to be allowed to fulfill my childhood dream. The 10 year old me sitting in
amazement at national geographic ocean documentaries to the 21 year old me sitting in utter awe as a 2 meter round sting ray swims half a foot away from me, as another massive rough tailed ray swims above circling one of the the rock formations at Poco Naufragio.

Seeing a sea turtle gracefully emerge out from the blue distance, and touching my arm. Experiences such as these have changed my perspective on everything.

I always cared about the environment, and marine life. I always knew all life on earth was precious,
but ocean life is always put on the back burner because we cant see it.
We all know it is there, but to actually encounter them on a daily basis has just reaffirmed the urgency of the situation.
How much longer can the world just sit on the sidelines while a few people rape our precious oceans?
Now that I am a PADI  Divemaster I can see doors opening, I actually feel like I have options for once.

Obviously I want to finish University , but now I am beginning to see that there a whole world out there I didn't think existed. I knew scuba diving was something people did, but never did I think it could actually play a huge role in changing the way things are with the world.

Its really up to me at this point to see how far I can go with this, and only time will tell, but Diving is definitely something I can never part ways with now.

I am truly thankful to have been allowed the opportunity to intern with the dive shop.
Good times, and bad times, it was all part of the growing process.
I don't believe for a second, and it is like Pete said, that the person who walked in on day 1 is the person who walked out on day 60.

The work, the diving, the debriefs, bollockings, all them have helped me grow not just as a diver but as a person.

Never will I do all the things I use to do in the same light. Ive just developed a different perspective on
my life, and I am grateful for that.

Now i just need to get my life on track and see where i go.
Well now the all the finality is said, Lets look back at this last week.

It was the Best week I have had. From diving with sea turtles, to giant rays, Cuttlefish, octopus, the dsd workshop which was the most laughing I have done underwater.
SO much laughing that I began swallowing water and coughing. Laughing while scuba diving has proved to be and occupational hazard I was not aware of.

To Further compliment the laughter one of the interns Nemo getting headbutted by a seaturtle is a sight i will always look back and laugh on.
Looking back on my final week , and the whole internship as I type this is all smiles. I will never forget the people the place, and the dives.

Dive and Sea was my foster family for two months and you will be missed. Thanks for the journey

PS.. a Divemaster is an Instructors bitch. IS THAT the unofficial label :P

YOUR almost at the top of that ladder... Dont slip.

The 7th week of my internship has finally come to a close, and I am ecstatic.

A couple of signatures and evaluations to be signed off, and I can officially call myself a PADI Divemaster. 

It was not easy at all to reach this point. It was an uphill trek, with so many obstacles in the way, but I
persevered. Not without my fair share of blood sweat, and metaphorical tears... MEN dont cry.. Can I call myself a man yet? Man-child it is I guess.

Looking back at the debriefs, ear chewings, I can say they were completely necessary. We go through life making mistakes and people tend to just brush it off , and maybe let you know in the nicest way possible, but I am beginning to understand the methodology of it all.

When you make a mistake, and someone like Pete, or Melissa make it abundantly clear that you should be beyond making errors of that caliber, it stings like a hot iron. This iron leaves that mental scar, and you are about 98 percent less likely to make that mistake again, unless you are "thick" as it is known amongst some circles :)

The blunt harshness of it all, in the end , produces long lasting competent workers, who will hopefully carry this work ethic into their future careers.

I really am grateful to Pete, Melissa, Alice, and Will for their bluntness. At first I was a little taken aback by
it, but then I began to adapt , and realize this is life, its not a game, time to grow up and just pay attention.

Of course there is time for fun and games,  theres a time and place for everything, and at the end of the day work is work, and must be treated with the utmost attention to detail, meticulous, and thorough, no stone unturned.

One dive stuck with me on week 7 and it was the dive I led at Poco Naufragio. This has nothing to do with the fact that I led the dive, yes that was cool, but I saw a Remora (live shark sucker). It is honestly a
truly beautiful fish. The coolest part about seeing a solitary remora is that it was just swimming around trying to find a host to attach itself too.

It kept swimming around us the divers probably in hopes of just attaching itself to one of us. Apparently it was quite fond of one intern in particular's ( will aka Nemo).
The truly magnificent part of the sighting was when we were about 2 minutes from resurfacing, impeccable timing a massive round sting ray shows up, and like it was planned the remora attached itself to the ray, and they swam off together. To witness the actual symbiotic relationship forming is truly and experience I never thought I would behold. The relationship in the commensalism category ( the host gains nothing or very little) is something that benefits the remora, and does nothing much for the ray.

Its just something I am curious to know the origins of. The Remora, gains a free ride, and shelter, but at what point did this fish develop this innate trait? The sucker the fish develops is specifically to attach itself, so tracking the lineage and origins of this disc is something I am going to have to check out.

Well I am almost a DM! time to get the sweet T-shirt hopefully , all is swell in my universe.

PADI Divemasters.............. almost!

Our sixth week into the internship in a brief summary.

Monday was a busy day, where everything had to run smoothly, but unfortunately we were still having trouble as a team to do even the simplest of tasks. Some pieces of customer kit was forgotten and Theiss' entire kit (except for his dear socks) were also not brought, so we got a rather late start to the day.

After we got everything sorted out, Theiss went off to Yellow Mountain together with Will and Pete to lead Fruzsina, Johannes, Richard, Frazer, Bill and Marvin on a couple of jolly dives. Will was conducting Giorgios's Open Water part of his Open Water Diver Course.

And the party started before we even got to the actual dive site. As we took off from the marina, a couple of dolphins together with a baby individual crossed our watery path which obviously bouyed the group, customers and staff members alike. To be honest, why bother going on dolphin sightings with expensive tourist charters when you can go and dive with Dive and Sea Tenerife?

The actual dives went really well, and the group stayed nice and close during the fun dives, which was important, especially since Theiss was "on his own". The group saw a school of barracudas on both dives (it might have been the same), which was really awesome. Theiss has now been on three dives with Fruzsina, our Hungarian/Danish visitor, and on every one of these they have seen a school of barracudas, a fact she found very peculiar herself as well. Moreover, they came across a common octopus and a scrawled filefish.

In the afternoon, Malene did her DSD Kit Set-Up Presentation and scored a 5, so she was obviously buoyed by that! Theiss was acting as surface support for a couple of DSD students in the pool.

Wednesday was a quiet, but an important day for the senior interns, because we all got one step closer to the DM sign-off. In the morning we had our final pool session before our exam, and it went all right, we reckon. Afterwards, Malene and Trigger did their final 400 m swim in the pool super-speedily and they both got a solid 4 score, which definately was impressing considering that Trigger lost his swimwear all together halfway through the race. Let's just say it was good thing that we didn't have any kids snorkeling around in the pool at the same time.. Then we headed back up to shop, preparing for the final DSD Kit Set-up Presentation and Predive Safety Check. We both nailed it to a 5 despite some minor mistakes, but apparently that is allowed, because English is not our first language so our margin of error is bigger than the English native speakers.  

All the new interns were observing and commenting on all of our attempts, and even though they probably got fed up with it at the end of the day, it's really good for them to learn off of our mistakes. We definately expect no less than perfection from these guys now!

The following day we both went to the pool in the morning together with Melissa and three DSD students, Hallie, Cynthia and Harrison, who were actually people we had had through our free try dive a couple of days earlier. They all did well in the pool, and afterwards we went to Abades for their two Open Water Dives. The sea was rioting, so it was rough conditions for three brand new DSDs, and even though they struggled with a couple of minor psychological issues prior to descending, they all managed to complete and, more importantly, enjoy the dives, so well done to them!

Friday was again a very important day for the "senior interns". Due to bad weather conditions, all open water diving was cancelled and that offered the perfect opportunity for all of us to go to the pool first thing in the morning to perform our final skill set. And it was both a pleasant and a nerve wrecking experience. Some of the skills went without a hitch, while other skills went... hmm, let's just say that it was a good thing we didn't get through the entrie set on this day so we had to have one more session to complete both the missing and the failed skills. It was a really good experience for the new interns to watch our final skills and afterwards participate in the brief of the critique, good and bad, so they now know what "traps" to look out for.

Afterwards, we went to the marina to finalize our stamina tests as well. The newbes also had a go at the 100 m tow, 800 m snorkel and the 15 minutes float, so that was once again nice for them to get a primary assesment of what to work on during the following weeks. We, the senior ones, all got our finals, so that was really nice to get some more tests checked off. All in all a very enjoyable day: though only a small step for a dive center it was a giant leap for a couple of divemaster-aspirant.

Saturday, we both went to Poco Naufragio where Malene, Oz, Suzanne, Nemo and Bruce did there deep excercise together with Will and where Trigger led his first dive with Theiss, Alex, Aidan and Cassandra. The vis reminded of us diving back home, so even though it's normally an easy site to dive in Trigger did very well navigating in the bad conditions. The first 15 minutes of the dive were not very dramatic even though we did see some very colorful anemones. Then, we managed to point out a beautiful black moray eel and from there the dive only got better and better. We headed back to the anchor line and were met by an elegant, curious (and desperate?) live sharksucker, aka. rémora, which was really, really cool. It's nature is to attach itself to big pelagic animals, and hence it was clearly trying to attach itself to us. But suddenly, during our safety stop, it took off. We followed it with puzzled eyes, until we realized the reason of this strange behavior: it had found it's host again, which turned out to be a massive stingray, around 2 m wide, searching the top shelf for dinner. It was simply the most amazing sight, and it was so difficult to take our eyes off. To be honest, the last 10 minutes of the dive saved the whole day.

Afterwards we got back to the marina, changed tanks, dropped off Aidan and headed back out again to Arrecife. The conditions were terrible: the visibility was around 3-5 m. and the swell was strong. Practically, it reminded us of being back in Denmark diving. We did, however, see a stargazer, which (kind of) saved that dive...

In the afternoon we headed to the hotel pool together with Will, Nemo and Cassandra. It was a busy day, and we had a decent amount of people through, where a couple of them seemed very interested in joining us for some "real" diving soon.

Sunday was our day off, which we spend together with Theiss' parents in Los Christianos. Moreover, we're now very close to achieve what we came here for: the Divemaster Certification.

Rescue courses, Diving and a bit of a bad day !!

The following is a recap of our fifth week on the Dive and Sea Tenerife Internship. On our Induction Day we were told that we halfway through our internship would have one bad day, where everything that could go wrong would go wrong.. And certainly, this whole week has been an emotional rollercoaster ride with ups and downs.

On Monday Malene went to Abades along with Trigger, Pearl, Nemo, Bruce and Melissa to lead her first couple of dives, so it was a big day for her. She gave a more or less perfect brief and the dives went really well, even though she was going way too fast on the first one. This is a very common mistake, because you're so obsessed of navigating, that you completely forget that you have a group of recreational divers behind you. On the second dive, however, she paced herself very well and she pointed a lot of interesting things out, including a beautiful octopus, so altogether it was very rewarding for her.

Meanwhile, Theiss went to Yellow Mountain together with Cassandra, Village, Dory, Will and Fruzsina, a Hungarian/Danish girl, who joined us this week for some great diving together with her boyfriend Johannes. And as always, the dive site of Yellow Mountain didn't let us down on this terrific day. We plumbed in as usual on what was going to be one of the most awesome dives, Theiss has done in Tenerife. Will led the small group of divers on the Swim-Through route, and once we hit "the main attraction", an amazing sight hit us: a big school of barracudas were circling the top of the swim-through rock, and with the sun in the background it was the perfect stage for Will's photographic skills to onfold. Buoyed (metaphorically speaking, obviously) by this amazing experience, we went along and as a very nice bonus a couple of octopi and a common stingray even crossed our "path" as well! The next dive to and around Alien Rock was also very, very pleasant, but even though we did see another octopus and a striped trumpetfish, the first dive was completely overshadowed by the second one.

On Tuesday, both of us went to Yellow Mountain, where Fruzsina and Pearl did the first part of the Peak Performance Buoyancy dive conducted by Will. Meanwhile, Theiss led Malene, Dory and Bruce on a lovely jolly dive going to the swim-through, admitted in the hope of getting a glimpse of another (or the same) school of barracudas, which obviously was a bit to much to expect. And true enough, the barracudas were gone, but that didn't stop us from having yet another wonderful dive. Among the classics of the local aquatic life, we saw a school of needlefish circling the surface just on the other side of the swim-through, an octopus, a baby eagle ray, red backed cleaner shrimp and an annulated brittle star. Actually, we were so preoccupied by exploring and enjoying our ourselves that we only just managed to do our safety stop and get on the boat in time. A decent sized cuttlefish crossed our path in the end of the dive, and that just wrapped it all up. Afterwards, we were observing the second part of the Peak Performance Buoyancy.

In the afternoon, it was hotel pool time, so we packed up all our stuff and headed to Hotel. Will and Theiss was once again in the pool, the latter one acting as a substitue for Alice. The high season is upon us, and we can really feel that when we go to the pool.

Last Wednesday, where Catherine and Andrew along with their two children, Phoebe and Inigo did their DSD experience with us. Phoebe and Catherine had a week or so earlier done the Free Try Dive with us at the Hotel, and they really got the taste for it then, so they decided to bring the rest of the family. They were joined on the boat with Theiss, Nemo, Dory, Will and Pete. Due to some pretty rough afternoon conditions, a little bit of seasickness unfortunately hit the little family, but despite that they seemed to have a very good time.

At this point of the week, everything was running smoothly, but then, on this day, a lot of silly rookie mistakes were made, and they snowballed during the day causing a lot of extra, unnecessary work for ourselves at the end, so we had a very long debrief in order for this not to happen again.

Luckily for her, Malene was off until 7 p.m., because she was finally doing her night dive, this time from the shore of Abades. She has built up a lot of confidence since her last try failed, so she was very excited, and a little bit nervous, for this experience. Will was leading his father, Bill, who's joined us for this week to do his Rescue Diver and some specialities, Nemo, Bruce and a couple of interns from another dive center, Chris and Cassy. The first dive they did was just a "normal" day light dive, with the following being the actual night dive. On the first dive they saw a fangtooth moray, whis was really cool. It seems to us that the black moray is much more frequent, so it's always wicked to spot the yellow cousin. On the following dive, simply the experience of diving in the dark was the main experience even though they did see some very nice things, including a golden spotted snake eel and a cuttlefish.

On Thursday we got to stay in until 2 pm, because we were going to the marina, to do the confined part of the Rescue Course: Malene as an actual participant and Theiss as an observer/stuge. It's a very enjoyable course, so everyone had a lot of fun while doing it. But once again, during some stages of the day it seemed like everyone of the interns had left their brains back home resulting in a lot of mistakes being made and a lot of things forgotten, like the tool box.

On Friday we were both off, so we decided to go to Las Américas to stroll around and shop a little bit.

The following day, Malene was off to Las Eras along with Johannes, Fruzsina, Bill, Nemo and Melissa. Due to a rough surf and swell, they decided only to do one of the planned two dives.
The local trigger fishes acted as crazy as the ocean on this day being very offensive and curious, which was a lot of fun nonetheless for the little group.

Theiss started out in the morning by going into the pool together with Cassandra and Bruce to observe Will conducting some of the confined parts of the Open Water Diver course. The OWD student was George (Giorgios), a Greek fellah, who's joined us to do his entry level certification. He was a natural and did very well on his pool skills, so that was a joy to watch.

In the afternoon we went to the Hotel, and we were once again the center of all the attention in and around the pool during our 1 hour session. Some of the interest seemed very genuine, but as always it's impossible to tell whether or not some of the participants actually decides to join us for some diving.

Sunday turned the streak of bad days around, so it was nice to get the week wrapped up in a good manner nonetheless. Theiss was in at 6 a.m. to be on boat cover for Pete, Will, Bill, Village and Dory for their night dive at Poco Naufragio. Afterwards, we were joined by Malene, Nemo and Bruce to do the open water scenario for the ongoing rescue course. It's very amusing to be a part, because the course puts the students on the edge and it's actually pretty physically demanding.

In the afternoon we went to the pool to run through the skill set together with Nemo, Dory and Village. It's been a long time since we've done them, so we both felt a little bit rusty, but we managed to introduce most of the underwater skills for the new ones in a neat manner. All three of them did well, and we're sure that they will pick it up sooner rather than later.

Afterwards, we chillaxed in the shop doing some daily jobs and proposed some upbeat song tracks for the new car CDs. So all things considered, we got the week well overwith and had a nice conclusion to it after all.